The 10 best motorcycle engines ... ever!

You can’t have a motorbike without a motor, and over the decades there’s been some truly glorious bike engines. This is our Top10 list of the greatest, most important and most innovative bike engines ever made, as we pay homage to horsepower.

It’s one of the best feelings in the world. You grab a big handful of throttle and the bike instantly surges forward, torrents of power blasting you towards the horizon. It never fails to make you smile, this is why you got into bikes in the first place. But what separates a good bike engine from a truly great one?

Power, obviously. But how it makes that power, what it powers, and that model’s impact on motorcycling are all part of the equation. Over the years there have been some extraordinary, ground-breaking bike engines, but these are our Top 10 of the finest, fastest or most important engines ever made. We argued long and hard and this is our list. See if yours is on here…

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I always remember taking one of the first Evo engined bikes out for a test ride.I spent about thirty minutes riding the bike and a further fortyfive minutes backtracking trying to find the ignition keys that had viberated out of the switch and onto the road. A couple of years later I looked after a fleet of police bikes, mainly Yamaha XJ's that where very reliable. Part of the fleet was replaced by Evo Harleys,and from a mechanical , running costs and fleet availability point of veiw, they turned out to be an absolute nightmare

Excellent artical. Nice broad range of different engine types, but Harley engine should not have been in it. What about Suzuki's or Norton's Rotary engines?, Scotts water cooled 700cc two stroke?, and BMW's Boxer instead?.

2. Say what you will about the engine, it was far more reliable than it's predecessors, along with increased power to boot.

3. With that engine Harley asked the powers that be to remove the +750cc tariff that was meant to protect them. The brand succeeded on it's own terms, so historically it is significant enough to warrant inclusion in this article.

Good list. The only thing I might have done is drop one of the four cylinder bikes (not the CB750 obviously) and added a BMW flat twin or maybe a watercooled twin (TZR250 or RD350LC). Good choices none the less.

A Harley engine? What a joke! A lot of other MUCH better engines deserved a place on that list. As far as Harleys slump, they were brought out of it by some pretty darn good marketing and a generally clueless american public.

A provocative subject and even with a top 50 it would be hard not to leave out some good ones. However, devoting almost half of them to the usual across the frame 4s, which while undoubtedly are popular for the reason that they work well, they are not that dissimilar from each other. It is a pretty easy jump from Z1 to GSX-R to R1 to 675 (Not exactly like developing a rotary) and this leaves precious little room for some truly great engines.

Seems like the list was more drawn up to make the current generation of readers feel their bikes are the ones that count, when in reality most of the great ideas and configurations had already been tried before the second world war and while many were not reliable, in the context of their day, some were truly great (JAP in the Brough Superior for example) and became the new benchmark. I think this list will not stand up to the test of time. Obviously there are some future engines worthy of being added, but I can't see a 675 engine or an R1 engine being considered particularly notworthy in 20 years or so and being in an all time top 10 (instead of the 2010 perspective top ten) The NR should definitely have been here because it was and possibly still is at the pinnacle of the greatest motorcycle manufacturer's technological capability and I am sure they would be dismayed that the C90 or even the NSR500, for all their successes, be included but the NR not.

Just retired after 45 years selling most makes from American to Vespa, also did spares and warranty work for most major makes from a large retailer. All bikes have problems the higher mileage jap bikes are soon shot if ridden hard in the top end area plus electrics are not as good as made out plus price of parts are insane. Harley Evolution motors are superb if run in correctly and are reasonable on parts due to many after market sources, plus easy to work on. Try changing plugs on most jap sports bikes, plus crap corrode away fixings. I did hundreds of accident repair estimates, parts prices are in many cases obscene! agree the little Honda 90 was a gem, still fetch good prices if in fair nick.

A Harley engine? What a joke! A lot of other MUCH better engines deserved a place on that list. As far as Harleys slump, they were brought out of it by some pretty darn good marketing and a generally clueless american public.

The Harley Evo engine was significant in that it was good enough to save the company from extinction. I would agree that if that's the criteria for selecting a great engine you might consider one or more BMW boxer engines.

And now for my $.02. Why not reference the latest version of the KTM LC-4 engine? 65 honest horsepower from a 654 cc. single is record breaking, as is the counterbalancer, the six speed transmission, and the low overall weight and bulk. I suppose this engine will never be "significant" as it's so advanced that it's being banned from competition. Dakar being the latest sanctioning body to cave in to the demands of lesser manufacturers. The Honda alternative makes all of 39 horsepower. Otherwise, the LC-4 broken in and installed in an '08, '09, or '10 Duke 690 certainly meets the criteria for launching the bike towards the horizon whenever the rider twists the right grip.

Overall, the inclusion of triples (2T & 4T) is refreshing. I can't get enough of triples, followed by twins, V's and finally straight 4's. I've never ridden a straight 6, sadly, or ever ride a Z1/Z900, but if a ZX9, or ZX12 is anything to go by... they are still blinding!

Ahem, on the subject of triples, did I miss the Triumph Trident? Also, the XS750/850 - they were floored, but still deserve a mention because Yamaha were brave enough to try to palm...sorry, attempt to sell us a 'new' design at a time when 4's & twin 4T's were the norm.

I was kind of surprised to see that the Kawasaki GPz900r engine wasn’t mentioned. As for the Harley, although it was the engine that launched a thousand chops I don’t think it can claim anything else but being in the top 10 for just style and street posing.

But there are a lot of land mark engines that didn’t get a mention so it makes you wonder if the people who wrote the piece knew much about the history of motorcycle engines and how they changed the market of the day when released.

So the evo engine is on the list because it 'saved' HD? Because it was 'significant' to the company? I still don't get how that makes it a 'best' engine. 'Best' and 'Very significant' seem like wildly different lists to me.

I'd toss the R1 out for sure. Maybe (actually definitely) I'm biased to Suzuki, but the TL really makes it on my list. Not only because of its vicious and wonderful character, but because of its evolution into DL and SV further on.

For the most reliable yet powerful massive lump of multipurpose engine ever made, I'm going for old the Suzuki oil-cooled GSXR1100/Bandit 1200 lump. Had a bunch of them in different bikes over the years, had shit loads of fun on the back wheel, and never did one of them break down, ever.

Wow, so many valid points you've all made. Least we agree on one thing. There's no other feeling than YOUR bike.....Road or track, single or twin, V or parallel, 4 stroke or 2 stroke...single, twin, triple, four....V four or square four....just magic on song.

I have owned an 80 cubic inch Evolution engined Super-glide for over 15 years now and the only things that I have replaced in that engine are the camshaft, lifters and pushrods after 92000km (only because I was worried about the original non-Torington cam bearings). The ignition module was replaced after about 85000km because the resin actually melted out of it whilst giving it a hiding on an interstate run on a really hot day. The bike never even broke down and did in fact rev faster because it seemed to lose the limiter. Got home after living on the bike for 5 days and it was still running great but decided to put a single fire ignition on it so as to not push my luck and get stuck far from home. I bought the bike brand new and do the servicing myself and swear that this is half the trick to longevity because I don't rely on someone else's apprentice to learn at my expense. You are right to say that this is a great engine (mine is one of the last from the second last year of production 1997) Thumbs up from me.

I am surprised you picked the 675 over the 1050 because your own criteria was horsepower(homage to HP) and the 1050 makes more than the 675. In your homage to HP you left out some truly great engines, but I am happy that you included the triple which is actually a very old configuration and has been under utilized for street bikes until triumph brought it once again to the front of view. Its also a wonder why you included the harley engine in your homage to hp because the harley is better known for torque than for HP. I wonder if you mean't to say homage to HP and/or Torque, Good to see it wasn't all 4s, because they are essentially the same engine, so I would not experc both the 675 and 1050 for the same reason, but if HP and arguably torque is your engine criteria, then 1050 fits better than 675.

Ok, I can see all the engines here but, tell me gays, what aboat my exelent Honda xrv Africa twin RD07 2002 model ? Isen't that a real prooven engine through the years ? And also deserve a star in the competition here